'60 Minutes' segment paints Trump as threat to the country's legal system amid lawsuit
As its parent company faces a lawsuit from President Donald Trump Minutes aired a segment Sunday night that labeled Trump a threat to the legal system voting system and the rule of law itself Host Scott Pelley spoke to several lawyers about Trump s executive orders targeting and penalizing law firms associated with Democratic attacks against him Pelley disclosed it was nearly impossible to find people to speak on camera about the subject out of fear of retaliation One of the sparse who did speak to Pelley was Democratic attorney Marc Elias who worked as general counsel for Hillary Clinton s presidential campaign and whose former firm Perkins Coie was at the center of one executive order in March Perkins Coie was the firm that hired the company behind the infamous Christopher Steele dossier about Trump s alleged connections to Russia Among other things the order called for Perkins Coie employees to be stripped of their safety clearances and banned from accessing governing body buildings It also called for the termination of the firm's existing contracts with ruling body clients TRUMP LASHES OUT AT CBS ' MINUTES ' SAYS THEY SHOULD PAY A 'BIG PRICE'Elias referred to Trump as the walking embodiment of everything that is wrong with the American political system and suggested the rule of law is at peril if these executive orders stand Without that Elias claimed Trump could take on other institutions This is why the business society ought to care Elias explained In the modern day it might be that you know Donald Trump thinks he can take over the referendum system through one of his executive orders The next morning maybe it's the banking system After that maybe it's contracts Maybe he decrees I'm going to decide which contracts are binding and which contracts aren't binding He added So the legal system is fundamental to how our society operates how capitalism operates and everyone should have a stake in that Donald Ayer former Deputy Attorney General under President George H W Bush also called Trump s order a direct attack on the whole functioning of our judicial system with the whole system of governing body at peril Another lawyer San Francisco attorney John Keker spoke about his effort to recruit law firms to oppose and challenge Trump s executive orders saying that the alternative could outcome in a dictatorship That's what's happened in China It happened in Russia These are legal systems that look like legal systems but in fact are controlled by a dictatorship Keker disclosed Minutes did not air a guest to argue in favor of Trump s orders against law firms CLICK HERE FOR MORE COVERAGE OF MEDIA AND CULTUREA federal judge blocked Trump s order against Perkins Coie shortly after the law firm requested an emergency restraining order preventing the order from taking effect The same judge permanently blocked Trump s order from taking effect on Friday calling it unconstitutional Minutes is now caught up in its own legal issues with Trump as CBS and parent company Paramount Global continue to address the lawsuit Trump is seeking billion in a lawsuit against CBS alleging electoral process interference over its handling of a Minutes interview last year with then-Vice President Kamala Harris The president accused CBS of aiding his Democratic opponent through deceptive editing just weeks before the presidential poll Paramount Global agreed to mediation last month signaling their courtroom feud could conclusion in a settlement CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
